I would go to the "Oil Additives" forum and read up about Auto RX.Seems to be the Bees Knees around here. I am running a bottle of it through my car, my sister's car, and my father's car. Only a few hundred miles into the first application, and at least in my head my car runs better.

First thing I would do is change the oil, if you dont know what the previous owner did I would run Cheap dino oil and 3000 miles for the first oil change interval.

Then, if it was me, I would do an Auto RX clean and rinse cycle. But that is up to you.

I had a '98 Impreza with the same 2.2L and 150K miles (sold at 204K miles), ran various forms of Motul and Mobil1....the 2.2L is very easy on oil, just keep some in there and change at 5K you should be fine.....synthetics to 10K or so should be fine. The Subaru engines of that era seemed to like thicker 30-wt oils or 5w/10w-40, as mine did. M1 10w-40 High Mileage would be a perfect candidate to 10K mile changes, I think. Otherwise, nearly any oil will be fine in your engine.

If you intend to keep the car for a long while, run 2 clean cycles of Auto-RX through it using conventional oil. Perform a few more oil changes with conventional oil after the treatment ends as cleaning will still continue, even after the rinse phase of Auto-RX is completed. If you have no leaks or consumption issues switch to a non-HM synthetic of your choice. Stick to the factory recommended 5/10w-40.

Those cars are notorious for front crank seal leaks, believe it may have been recalled. Material wore quickly. I say this because if it leaks, don't blame the oil.

I'd pop a valve cover (pass side is easiest and easy) before adding any additives, including ARX. It might not need it. If it does have buildup, it will settle on the bottom of the cover and not around valve seals.

You may also experience pin/piston slap during warmup. Had it for years with 0 problems.

The 2.2 is a closed-deck motor and is very well-built. T-belt is a 60,000 mile interval. Oem H2O pumps seems to last 106,000 by a vast number of owners on other boards.

M

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2006 Tundra 2wd 2002 MDX (wifey!)2003 town and country, in various state of repair

The non-turbo 2.2L is actually open-deck...the only fully closed-deck EJ22 was in the '91-'94 Legacy SS turbo and wagon turbo.

I really don't think that ARX is a necessity in this particular engine, they are very tough and not prone to any sludge or varnish buildup. I am running ARX in mine only to try to help a few seal leaks before replacing them.

Agreed, the Subie engines (turbo or NA) just don't like the M1 5w-30 for some reason.

if your engine does not have piston slap, then you have a very good find, and it is worth looking after it. i use whatever oils i get on sale for my scoobie, supertech synthetic 5w30 is what i'd use if i wanted to baby it, or some other cheap synthetic. supertech conventional 5w30 is also good. in the spring, when it warms up, you can change to a supertech 10w30 synthetic. by then oil prices will have dropped considerably. a rebuilt 2.2 goes for about 3500$, this is not a cheap engine. people use it for their home made airplane projects, especially if it has a turbo.

One of my favorite articles was of a Porsche 914 owner who put a 2.0 liter WRX engine into it....he said it was consistent with the original Porsche design because it was flat-engined and similar in original displacement :)

And it made his car go like a bat out of [censored] with minimal modification.

I didn't think the 2.2 is known for piston slap. Just keep fresh oil in it and don't let it overheat and it will last a very long, long time. It is an interference motor, so don't go past the recommended timing belt interval.

I have a '96 2.2 (non-interference) in my old '86 GL. It is generally regarded as the best motor subaru ever made. I run 5w-40 in mine.